Digital Preservation Selection Process at NAL

The National Agricultural Library (NAL) seeks to digitize USDA titles according to internal best practices. These best practices have been developed over the years through NAL experience, which has been informed by experience and research conducted by the Cornell University Preservation Department as well as the University of Virginia Electronic Text Center. These best practices are the minimum standard for digital preservation projects and may be found in the most recent NAL SOW for digitizing services. Materials reformatted for preservation purposes are also made available online through the NAL Preservation web site.

In selecting for preservation, the NAL Electronic Preservation Committee (EPC) takes into consideration the NAL responsibility within the National Preservation Program for Agricultural Literature (NPPAL) as well as the preservation needs of its own collections. To leverage its resources most effectively, NAL seeks opportunities to serve both interests. Within the NPPAL, NAL is responsible for preserving federal documents related to agriculture as well as pre-1862 imprints and local manuscript collections.

For preservation through digital reformatting, priority is given to federal documents, particularly those produced by USDA. Within this category, NAL seeks to determine which USDA imprints are on the list of core historical agriculture literature developed by Cornell University. Because they are USDA materials, NAL preserves these, even though Cornell is assuming responsibility for the core historical literature at large.

The first journal digitized for preservation, the Journal of Agricultural Research (1913-1949) is on this core list. The second journal to be digitized, the USDA Yearbook of Agriculture, is on the list of most highly referenced scholarly journals. Other titles previously digitized for preservation are The Animal Parasites of Sheep (1890), and Message from the President of the United States... (1902). These items were selected early in the digital preservation efforts of the library and were chosen in part for the type of material contained in them and thus as a test for digital preservation. Current digital reformatting efforts are directed at the USDA Home and Garden Bulletin Series, a significant collection of interest to scholars, field researchers, as well as the American public.

In 1995 the NAL Electronic Preservation Committee (EPC) developed well thought out and thorough selection guidelines for digitizing. These guidelines may be found on the NAL preservation home page at http://preserve.nal.usda.gov/projects/criteria.htm. The guidelines were approved by the EPC chair soon after her arrival in 1997. The EPC is using its NPPAL responsibilities as a selection guide in conjunction with the NAL guidelines.